Beyond Patents
I argue that the growing dominance of patent analysis not only fails to provide valuable and reliable insight into innovation processes, but is a smoke screen that prevents social scientists [...]
Schumpeterian Profits and the Alchemist Fallacy Revised
The present study examines the importance of Schumpeterian profits in the United States economy. Schumpeterian profits are defined as those profits that arise when firms are able to appropriate the [...]
Should Law Subsidize Driving?
"A century ago, captains of industry and their allies in government launched a social experiment in urban America: the abandonment of mass transit in favor of a new personal technology, [...]
The effects of housing supply restrictions on partisan geography
Economists have scrutinized the effects of residential building restrictions on the cost of housing, growth, and migration in recent years. More strictly zoned states and metro areas have lost population [...]
The Securities Industry in New York City
Securities industry pretax profits grew by 42 percent in 2017 on higher revenue from core activities. That momentum has carried into 2018, with profits rising by 11 percent during the [...]
Expanding Eligibility for Professional and Occupational Licensing for Immigrants
This report provides an overview of the need to expand professional, business, and commercial licenses (also known as “occupational licenses”) to various work-authorized immigrants. The report provides an overview of [...]
Gentrification And The Health Of Low-Income Children In New York City
Although the pace of gentrification has accelerated in cities across the US, little is known about the health consequences of growing up in gentrifying neighborhoods. We used New York State [...]
Social Connectedness in Urban Areas
We use anonymized and aggregated data from Facebook to explore the spatial structure of social networks in the New York metro area. We highlight the importance of transportation infrastructure in [...]
Intellectual property rights affect the pattern of trade
Disagreements over intellectual property rights policies have been a major roadblock in recent trade agreement talks, and the issue has also been a pillar of critiques of globalisation. This column [...]
Mortgage Finance in the Face of Rising Climate Risk
Recent evidence suggests an increasing risk of natural disasters of the magnitude of hurricane Katrina and Sandy. Concurrently, the number and volume of flood insurance policies has been declining since [...]